Linguistics 101 Theoretical Syntax
Theoretical Syntax • When constructing sentences, our brains do a lot of work ‘behind the scenes’. • Syntactic theories attempt to discover these hidden processes. • While languages differ a lot on the surface, they are very similar in what goes on ‘behind the scenes’. • The following slides will introduce the type of work done in theoretical syntax.
Theoretical Syntax • Recall: English has: • VP (verb phrase) with a V head. • PP (prepositional phrase) with a P head. • NP (noun phrase) with a N head. • CP (complementizer phrase) with a C head. • I will show that English also has TP (tense phrase) with a T head. • I will also show that morphemes can ‘move’ from one position to another.
Tense • Tense is sometimes shown on the main verb. • I walk, he walks (present) • I walked (past)
Tense • Tense is sometimes shown as a separate word. • I will walk (future) • I do n’t walk (present with negation) • I did n’t walk (past with negation) • I do walk (present with emphasis) • I did walk (past with emphasis) • I am walking (present progressive) • I was walking (past progressive) • Did you walk (past question) • Do you walk (present question)
Tense • In many languages, ‘tense’ is always in the same position. • Could English ‘tense’ also always be in the same position?
Tense Phrase ‘ He walked.’
Tense Phrase • The verb gets tense by ‘moving’.
Tense Phrase `He will walk.’ • ‘will’ indicates a tense, so it can start in T.
Evidence • Is there any evidence supporting a ‘tense’ phrase and movement of the verb into ‘tense’? • negation • yes/no questions • We will also see further evidence that things ‘move’. • ‘have’ • subject-verb agreement • wh-questions
Negation • Tense must precede negation (in English) I will not go (future) *I not will go cf. I will go I did not go (past) *I not did go *I not went cf. I went He does not go (present) *He not goes cf. He goes
Negation • Negation appears between the ‘tense’ and the main verb.
Negation • Why doesn’t the verb just move to get tense? • Negation blocks this movement.
Negation • How do we get tense when there is negation? Negative sentence Affirmative sentence Solution: insert dummy verb (movement blocked) ‘do’ to show tense
Negation • Present progressive (be + Ving) ‘He is walk ing ’ / ‘He was walk ing ’
Yes/no questions • Yes/No Questions ‘He walked’ before movement • What are the yes/no question form for each?
Yes/no questions Is he walking? 1. He is walking He was walking Was he walking? 2. Will he walk? 3. He will walk Did he walk? 4. He walked Does he walk? 5. He walks
Yes/no questions Is/Was he walking? Did he walk?
Yes/no questions Does he walk? Will he walk?
‘have’ • There are actually more than one verb ‘have’ • Main verb generally meaning ‘to possess’ ‘I have a book.’ • Helping/auxiliary verb (for tense/aspect purposes) ‘I have gone to France.’ • The main verb ‘have’ and the auxiliary ‘have’ behave differently.
‘have’ • Main verb: does not precede negation I have a book. *I have not a book. I do not have a book • Helping verb: precedes negation I have gone to France I have not gone to France *I do not have gone to France
‘have’ • Main verb: no subject-aux inversion I have a book. *Have you a book? Do you have a book? • Helping verb: undergoes subject-aux inversion I have gone to France. Have you gone to France? *Do you have gone to France?
What is T? • ‘be’, ‘have’ and the dummy ‘do’ appear in T. What else? • What evidence do you have?
Agreement • English has agreement between the verb and the subject: • 3 rd person singular -s (present tense) singular plural 1 st person I walk we walk 2 nd person you walk you walk 3 rd person he walks they walk she walks it walks
Agreement • ‘have’ also shows this agreement with a subject. singular plural 1 st person I have we have 2 nd person you have you have 3 rd person he has they have she has it has
Agreement • Tense and agreement appear in the same position. You... He... You walk. He walks. walk You do not walk. He does not walk. Do you walk? Does he walk? You have a book. He has a book. have poss You do not have a book. He does not have a book. Do you have a book? Does he have a book? You have gone. He has gone. have aux You have not gone. He has not gone. Have you gone? Has he gone?
Wh -questions • In wh -questions, wh -words move to the front of a clause. • wh-words include: who, what, when, where, why, how... He bought a book. What did he buy? He bought what? He went to the store. Where did he go? He went where? He went by bike. How did he go? He went how?
Wh -questions • Below is a theory of what happens in wh - questions.
Wh-questions • Concerning wh-questions, we see three kinds of languages: • Those which move them (e.g. English, German, Czech) • Those which don’t (e.g. Japanese, Korean, Swahili) • Those which optionally move them (e.g. French, Malay) • Importantly, when moved, languages always move the wh- word to the same position (to CP)
Wh -questions • When we have two clauses, wh -words move to the beginning of the sentence in wh -questions. [ What did you say [ that John bought ___]]? clause 2 clause 1 • In ‘concealed’ wh -questions, wh -words move to the beginning of their clause only. [ John asked [ what Tom bought ___ ]]. clause 2 clause 1
Wh -questions • In some dialects of German, moved wh -words can be pronounced more than once...but always at the beginning of a clause! [ Wen glaubst du [ wen sie ___ liebt]]? clause 2 clause 1 Wen glaubst du wen sie liebt? Whom believe you whom she loves ‘Whom do you believe she loves ___?’
Conclusion • The main purpose of these slides was to: • demonstrate that there is more to language than what appears on the surface • give you an idea of the type of work theoretical syntacticians do • show that syntax also has ‘rules’, just like the other components of the grammar
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